What will an orange filter do on an overcast day?

[eric]

Simple question. June Gloom down here in SoCal. Just wondering what an orange filter would do to overall photo when it is overcast. What does it usually do to skin tone in sunlight. What will it do in flat overcast lighting?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

It doesn't help much if it's heavily overcast. It will still darken foliage, cut through haze, reduce the effect of chromatic aberration, but it won't turn bad clouds into good ones. I don't usually use an orange filter for portraits, but I suppose it will lighten up blemishes, but might make the lips unnaturally light, unless you have the subject wearing green lipstick like they used to do sometimes.

 

[jjstafford]

Orange is a most excellent haze cutting filter. I routinely use it with a 500mm telephoto lens over the Hasselblad. Just keep in mind that for sky effects, the whole issue is about color. If there is truly little blue in the sky, you might have somewhat sharper foregrounds, but it won't make a grey into a dramatic effect. Subject color is everything, hence the term "contrast filter".

 

[Thomassauerwein]

I find that with textured cloudy skies (cloudy with filtered light) the orange works great. Skies like yesterday and today however forget it. But if there is darkness at the bottom of some of the clouds it really gives a great contrast.
As far as people go, I find the orange filter works great!, for people with thin skin, also very dark skin the orange brings out a natural polish.

 

[Jan Cornelius]

Does it, under certain conditions increase grain ?

 

[skahde]

Does it, under certain conditions increase grain ?

The perception of grain may differ when choosing a different filter as colours may be rendered as lighter or darker tones where grain gets more or less obvious in the print. Other than that and as long as film, exposure (taking in account the spectral sensitivity to the filtered light), development, and printing are the same you shouldn't find a difference. As you can see from this list it's the factors follwing the choice of filter which may be influenced and which may affect grain indiretyl when the photographer changes them.

If one overexposes because of too much compensation for the filter grain will get bigger. If development time is increased to get the contrast to the same level as before the result will be grainier. It is also very likely that when a phographer uses different filters he chooses different levels of contrast for reasons of esthetics in the printing-step which may lead to the misinterpretation that different filters cause differences in grain as harder prints from the same neg will always look grainier.

Stefan

 

[Leon]

I find that with textured cloudy skies (cloudy with filtered light) the orange works great. Skies like yesterday and today however forget it. But if there is darkness at the bottom of some of the clouds it really gives a great contrast.

Me too Thomas ... if the sky is cloudy, over cast but has shape and form, the orange filter is superb to bring about drama to an otherwise dull and uninteresting sky. Also, with blue skies and fluffy clouds - great stuff, but misty featureless, low and groggy skies - forget it ... i will sometimes use a green or yellow green in these conditions to bring about an interesting tone to the foreground to distract from the unisteresting sky.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

My solution is usually just not to include much sky when the sky is drab. If there are really good clouds, I'll include lots of sky, like on this one--

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[JeffD]

How would orange affect the far mountain, as far as haze reduction, in a pic like this:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

(disregard the bands in the pic- it is an example of a development problem
I was having).

Would orange have given a bit more contrast and definition to the mountain range in the background?

 

[Nick Zentena]

Orange blocks all blue and various amounts of green depending on the particular orange filter. Really dark orange filters are borderline red.

 

[Rich Ullsmith]

Jeff, if that pic is of where I think it is, the value of the mountains in the background would increase. I think they're reddish-orange.

 

[Dan Williams]

My solution is usually just not to include much sky when the sky is drab. If there are really good clouds, I'll include lots of sky, like on this one--

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

David,

I get "Photo not found"

Dan

 

[Sirius Glass]

Simple question. June Gloom down here in SoCal. Just wondering what an orange filter would do to overall photo when it is overcast. What does it usually do to skin tone in sunlight. What will it do in flat overcast lighting?

Eric,

You are talking about "June Gloom"*. The orange filter will make the Marine Layer easier to see. Not a real improvement.

Steve

* Southern California's version of the normal sky color in Rochester. It looks like a #18 Gray Card.

 

[pentaxuser]

David. I get "photo not found" as well.

I hope the OP won't mind me asking an additional but hopefully pertinent question addressed to everyone: In the event of an overcast sky but one in which you can differentiate the clouds i.e. not a uniform grey, what's the secret in bringing the cloud formation out in the print?

Often in these situations I find that the sky on the print is a pretty uniform white as the neg in that area has become almost black which I put down to the correct metering for the main subject such as a building etc which has overexposed the sky.

Even lengthy burning in seems to have very little effect.

Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[JeffD]

Jeff, if that pic is of where I think it is, the value of the mountains in the background would increase. I think they're reddish-orange.

If you guessed Death Valley, you were right. I guess what I am confused about, is the claim that an orange filter is good at cutting atmospheric haze. The mountains in the background look like they are suffering from haze. They are well over a mile distant, and the local contrast of the mountains looks weak, I'm assuming, because of the haze effect.

 

[Dave Wooten]

The shadows go darker as shaded areas are blue and blue is filtered out...havent used one for a portrait.

 

[Rich Ullsmith]

Jeff, that's a scene I am not likely to forget. The sun set on me on the Panamint dunes, I lost the car and hiked out at night. I think those dunes you have are right off the road, correct?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Sorry about the "not found" error. The original question was posted over two years ago, and I've rotated images in and out of my APUG gallery since then. I have no idea what the original image was.

 

[JeffD]

Jeff, that's a scene I am not likely to forget. The sun set on me on the Panamint dunes, I lost the car and hiked out at night. I think those dunes you have are right off the road, correct?

Hey Rich!

This is actually at Stovepipe Wells, though the scene is not one of typical giant dunes pictures you see from there.

Black and white dune pictures were more difficult than I expected (I have never photographed them before).

That pic was taken only maybe a couple of hundred feet from this picture:

http://www.hiddenworld.net/serendip...evine-Mountains,-Inyo-County,-California.html


To get back on the orange filter thread, I seem to remember Ansel Adams relating that Edward Weston told him to use an orange filter in the dunes areas of Death Valley, but don't apply any filter factor exposure correction, or you'll "over expose". I think he mentioned this in "the making of 40 photographs" book.

I wonder if that advice still is relevant with films today?

I didn't try this advice, but maybe next time I go out.

In some of my pictures the haze kind of obscures the far mountains, and maybe I should consider some kind of filtration to mitigate it. Or, maybe it is kind of helpful in creating the feeling of space.

I wonder, does a polarizing filter have any haze reducing tendencies?